“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Taking Confucius to heart, on Tuesday the University took a small but definitive first step toward aiming to build a culture of sustainability on campus.

Unveiling the initial draft of the University Strategic Plan, aimed at advancing sustainability on campus, Jack Colby, sustainability officer and assistant vice-chancellor for facilities operations, said that the University is now at a position where it can move ahead from “simply participation to a cultural change.”

“Our vision is to move where sustainability is not just a set of programs, but an integral part of our culture,” Colby said. “The University needs to make a leap ahead in terms of its culture and take full advantage of the opportunities made available through collaboration and participation.”

According to Colby, the majority of students have a positive outlook in this regard and that student response has always been positive regarding such issues.

The Strategic Plan, which outlines both long and short-term goals, aims to involve multiple elements on campus to achieve these goals, student involvement being one of them.

The plan contains five-year strategies involving academics and research on campus, with additions in courses and curricula, service learning and an endorsement of sustainability-guided research. Also included are ideas to use the campus as a classroom by improving resource and space efficiency.

“There is tremendous interest in our faculty regarding this,” Colby said. “We are also looking to promote undergraduate research in this regard and develop course work that enables them to earn credit.”

The plan also contains details on reducing the energy and water consumption, which is also required by various North Carolina state laws. Regarding energy consumption, the University is aiming to achieve a 30 percent reduction compared to 2003 levels, in addition to the 20 percent reduction achieved in water consumption over the last year.

Colby said that buildings are the largest consumers of energy on campus, and so it is important to look into this aspect while considering sustainability on campus.

The upcoming Hunt Library on Centennial Campus is a LEED Silver certified building, a requirement, Colby said, that will be implemented on all and any new buildings that come up in the future. LEED certified buildings reduce energy consumption by 26-30 percent. This will likely include the new bookstore that will be constructed after the demolition of Harrelson Hall and other future projects.

In addition to this, the University is also working to reduce energy consumption in existing buildings by reprogramming existing space using technology.

“Much of what we see is going to be about allocation of resources,” Colby said. “Currently, we are working to utilize declining resources more efficiently by eliminating waste and reducing energy consumption.”

The University has entered into two energy performance contracts to achieve this. One is a $19 million investment in 15 buildings on campus, which will result in annual saving worth $1.4 million.

 The other involves central energy plants worth $60 million—the largest of its kind in North Carolina—which will utilize the waste heat to make steam, which will then be used to produce electricity. The existing plants, Colby described, are 38 percent thermally efficient, and with this investment, the efficiency will go up by as much as 72 percent, and result in savings worth $3.5 million per year. This will enable the University to pay off the financing in 16-year payback periods.

Emphasizing the importance of engaging the community, Colby said that various organizations on campus like the Wolfpack Environmental Student Association, Student Government and the Inter-Residence Council are excellent supporters of these initiatives and are actively engaged in informing students about green issues on campus.

In this regard, Colby hinted at an addition to the various events organized on campus to increase awareness about these issues. Nothing specific, however, has been determined yet.

“It all involves repetition of the message, reaching out and providing service opportunities and projects to students,” Colby said.